Overcooked 2 review: If you can’t stand the heat, call your friends to the kitchen

The first Overcooked was a great couch co-op game in an era of mostly online multiplayer. The developer Team17 took a simple concept like cooking and turned it into one of the best co-op games to date. Now with online multiplayer and some new mechanics, the kitchen is more lively than ever. Overcooked 2 is a sequel that uses the original idea and refines it like a culinary masterpiece.

Night of the Living Bread

The story for the sequel is just as wacky as the original. The Onion King and Kevin return with a new quest that pays homage to the Evil Dead franchise. The Onion King reads from the Necro-NomNom-Icon and unleashes the Unbread. Because of this, the chefs travel the kingdom once again to hone their skills to be able to stop the Unbread Army. (How convenient since I first saw The Evil Dead Musical a day before playing this game.)

Behind The Counter

There are new mechanics in Overcooked 2 that change how things work. For starters the yell button has changed into an emote wheel. The yell button was a fun little mechanic in the original that causes your chef to scream obscenities to your team. However, this button served no purpose other than comedy. It was a funny way to mess with your teammates but could just as easily dismantle team spirit. In order to make more helpful communication during online play, the emote wheel was created. The wheel is a nifty little tool that lets you tell people exactly what you are doing and communicate effectively.

Second is the addition of the throw mechanic. The throw changes how the game works on a fundamental level. In the previous title, running around the kitchen could quickly turn into chaos. While it was still possible to communicate what you were trying to do with your friends, the difficulty lied in all the bodies present in the kitchen. Being able to throw things to teammates prevents there from being too much foot traffic in the kitchen but calls for even more coordination. This is an incredibly smart way of encouraging helpful communication that doesn’t feel cumbersome or tacked on.

Order Up!

The new stages in Overcooked 2 are a sight to behold. Team17 calls them “dynamic stages” and push teamwork and difficulty to the next level. Fans of the original will that some stages had moving platforms, areas or obstacles that could impede progress. These “dynamic stages” cause the map itself to change. Being able to adapt in time to these changing stages and adjust you teamwork on the fly is brilliant and makes it all the more rewarding when a level is completed.

That being said I would highly recommend not playing this game by yourself. Coordinating as a team is hard. Coordinating yourself to do the work of two people is even harder. Imagine trying to juggle all the activities while switching between two characters. A player must have the dexterity to pull it off.

Final Reaction

Overcooked 2 is a true example of how to make a good sequel. By building upon the core idea and improving that experience. Overcooked 2 perfectly captures what was so great about the first game and makes no missteps in continuing that trend. Overall this game may just be the best co-op game to come out of 2018. Did I mention it now has online multiplayer?

Rating: 5/5 Atoms

Overcooked 2 is available in North American retail for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in addition to the digital versions (for Switch, Xbox, PS4, PC).